BBC - History - Stanley Baldwin z Stanley Baldwin © Baldwin was British prime minister three times in the 1920s and 1930s . Stanley Baldwin was born on 3 August 1867 in Bewdley, Worcestershire, the only son of a wealthy industrialist and member of parliament. The author Rudyard Kipling was Baldwin's cousin on his mother's side of the family. After graduating from Cambridge University, Baldwin joined the family iron-mongering business. He became Conservative MP for Bewdley in 1908, a seat his father had held. Following various ministerial appointments, in 1922 he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer. The following year he became prime minister when ill health forced Andrew Bonar Law to retire. He soon called a general election to seek approval for the government's plans to introduce protective tariffs, but failed to gain a majority. Ramsay MacDonald's first Labour government came to power, backed by Liberal support. It was short-lived. By November 1924, the Conservatives were back in power with a landslide majority and Baldwin as prime minister.

In the General Strike of 1926, Baldwin proclaimed a state of emergency and refused to negotiate further until the strike was over. The following year he passed the Trade Disputes Act, which declared general strikes to be revolutionary and illegal. The Conservatives lost the general election of 1929 and Labour came back to power. Baldwin considered leaving politics, and spent much of the next two years fighting elements within his own party. But in 1931 he returned to government as a member of Ramsay MacDonald's National Coalition and in June 1935 he became prime minister again when MacDonald resigned. This term of office was dominated by rising tension in Europe and the abdication crisis. Baldwin believed that Edward VIII's wish to marry the divorcee Wallis Simpson was unacceptable. The king was given the choice of renouncing her or abdicating, and chose to abdicate in December 1936. Baldwin resisted calls for re-armament and took a conciliatory approach towards Nazi Germany. Baldwin retired in May 1937 and was made Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. He died on 14 September 1947.

History of Stanley Baldwin - GOV.UK GOV.UK Stanley Baldwin Conservative 1935 to 1937, 1924 to 1929, 1923 to 1924 Born 3 August 1867, Bewdley, Worcesterhire Died 14 December 1947, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire Dates in office 1935 to 1937, 1924 to 1929, 1923 to 1924 Political party Conservative Major acts Trade Disputes Act 1927: following General Strike, introduced to limit powers and of trade union movement. Affected funding of Labour party too. Government of India Act 1935: gave limited powers of self-government. Heavily opposed by Winston Churchill. Public Order Act 1936: introduced to deal with street disturbances following marches by supporters of British Union Fascists and their opponents. Interesting facts He served under 3 monarchs.

“There is no country … where there are not somewhere lovers of freedom who look to this country to carry the torch and keep it burning bright until such time as they may again be able to light their extinguished torches at our flame. We owe it not only to our own people but to the world to preserve our soul for that.” Stanley Baldwin had a double inheritance. His father’s family were wealthy industrialists and he helped his father create what was, from 1902, one of Britain’s largest iron and steel firms, Baldwins Ltd. His mother’s family had artistic and literary interests: his uncles included the artists Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Edward Poynter, and Rudyard Kipling was a cousin. His father, Alfred Baldwin, was also Conservative MP for West Worcestershire (Bewdley) from 1892. On Alfred’s death in 1908, Stanley succeeded him as MP. His business experience helped his appointment as Financial Secretary of the Treasury in 1917, in David Lloyd George ’s wartime coalition government.

Concerned at the financial costs of the war, under the false name of ‘FST’ in a 1919 letter in The Times he appealed for voluntary donations by the rich to help reduce the war debt. He himself gave a fifth of his own wealth. In 1921 he entered the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade, but in October 1922 he played a leading part in a Conservative rebellion that overthrew the coalition government and the premiership of Lloyd George. In Andrew Bonar Law ’s Conservative government he became Chancellor of the Exchequer. When Bonar Law retired through illness in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime Minister. Determined to help reduce unemployment, he called a general election in November to seek support for a policy of trade protection. Failing to retain a majority, his government resigned in January 1924. Its replacement, the first Labour government also lacked an overall majority and, after it was defeated in another general election in October 1924, he returned as Prime Minister.

His second Conservative government was responsible for several notable achievements: the Locarno non-aggression pact, expansion of pensions and house building, local government reform and extending the right to vote to women aged over 21. Baldwin’s particular concern was to reduce social tensions and secure industrial peace. Although faced by the General Strike in May 1926, his combination of firmness and conciliation guaranteed its defeat. After the Conservatives lost the May 1929 election, Baldwin endured a severe party crisis, with attempts to force his resignation as party leader. Against considerable criticism from the main popular newspapers, he successfully fought back with a still-famous condemnation of the great ‘press lords’. During the 1931 financial and political crisis, he contributed to the formation of a coalition government, led by the former Labour Prime Minister, James Ramsay MacDonald . As Lord President of the Council, Baldwin at first sought to promote international disarmament, warning of the difficulty of defence against air attack: “the bomber will always get through”. However, as the threat from Nazi Germany became obvious, he accepted the need to arm again and introduced new defence programmes each year from 1934 to 1937, against Labour and Liberal opposition.

He became Prime Minister of the national government in June 1935 and in the autumn he won a general election, promising to continue to improve national defences. When seeking to avoid war with Mussolini’s Italy over Abyssinia, in order to focus effort against Hitler’s Germany, his Cabinet was embarrassed by an early disclosure of a compromise settlement (the Hore-Laval pact). In retrospect, the national government’s policy of combining armed deterrence with efforts to bind Hitler and Mussolini into a general European settlement seemed not enough. After the Second World War broke out in 1939, Baldwin became a leading target for those – especially Winston Churchill – who thought more could have been done to speed up rearmament and prevent war. Faced in late 1936 with King Edward VIII’s proposed marriage to the twice-divorced Mrs Wallis Simpson, which met widespread disapproval, he took the lead in making it plain that if the king persisted he should give up the throne. His management of this abdication crisis was highly praised. Baldwin’s most notable position was his support of parliamentary democracy during times when revolution and dictatorship were common European experiences.

In the 1920s he sought to prevent class conflict and mix the Labour movement into the party system and, in the 1930s, he became an international figure in the defence of democratic and Christian values. From 1938 to 1939 he led a major appeal to provide financial assistance for Jewish refugees from Nazi brutality. His post-1939 reputation as a guilty man who failed to resist Hitler or to rearm persists as a popular myth, but has been overtaken by modern historical scholarship. On his retirement from government and party politics in May 1937, he was created Earl Baldwin of Bewdley.

Help us improve GOV.UK Stanley Baldwin | prime minister of United Kingdom | Britannica.com prime minister of United Kingdom Written By: Alternative Titles: Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale, Stanley Baldwin, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale Stanley Baldwin Prime minister of United Kingdom Also known as Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale Stanley Baldwin, Viscount Corvedale of Corvedale born Sir Winston Churchill Stanley Baldwin, (born Aug. 3, 1867, Bewdley, Worcestershire , Eng.—died Dec. 14, 1947, Astley Hall, near Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire [now in Hereford and Worcester]), British Conservative politician, three times prime minister between 1923 and 1937; he headed the government during the General Strike of 1926, the Ethiopian crisis of 1935, and the abdication crisis of 1936. Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, 1932.

Bassano and Vandyk A relative of the author Rudyard Kipling and the painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Baldwin was the only son of Alfred Baldwin, chairman of the Great Western Railway and head of a large concern that included iron and steel manufactories and collieries. Young Baldwin was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College , Cambridge. He managed his father’s diversified heavy industries for several years. From 1908 to 1937 he was a member of the House of Commons . In December 1916 he became parliamentary private secretary to Andrew Bonar Law , chancellor of the Exchequer in David Lloyd George’s World War I coalition ministry. From 1917 to 1921 Baldwin served as financial secretary of the treasury, and in 1921 he became president of the Board of Trade . In October 1922, Bonar Law and Baldwin induced a majority of the Conservative members of Parliament to repudiate Lloyd George’s coalition. Baldwin was then appointed chancellor of the Exchequer in the new Conservative government headed by Bonar Law.

Sent to Washington, D.C., in January 1923 to settle the British World War I debt to the United States , Baldwin was widely criticized at home for negotiating terms less favourable to Great Britain than had been expected. When ill health forced Bonar Law to retire from his position, it nonetheless was Baldwin whom King George V asked, on May 22, 1923, to form a government. For six months, in the face of uneasy developments abroad, such as the Italian seizure of Corfu, and mounting unemployment at home, Baldwin’s government pursued a tranquil course. In October he appealed for a mandate to reverse Bonar Law’s free-trade policy; but a mandate was refused, and Baldwin’s first ministry ended Jan. 22, 1924. Baldwin returned to office Nov. 4, 1924, following the downfall of the first Labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald .

The economic reforms—including the restoration of the wartime McKenna duties (a 40-percent income tax and a 50-percent excess-profits tax), the gold standard, and the silk tax—proposed by Baldwin’s appointee to the Exchequer, Winston Churchill , failed to prevent a further slump in the coal trade. When the miners went on strike (May 4, 1926) and they were supported with sympathetic strikes in other vital industries, Baldwin proclaimed a state of emergency, organized volunteers to maintain essential services, and refused to negotiate further with labour until the strike was called off (it ended May 12, 1926). The following year he secured passage of the antiunion Trade Disputes Act . Britannica Stories Stanley Baldwin - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) (1867-1947). Three times British prime minister between 1923 and 1937, Stanley Baldwin headed the government during the general strike of 1926, the Ethiopian crisis of 1935, and the abdication crisis of 1936.

In the general strike (May 4-12, 1926) the Conservative Baldwin proclaimed a state of emergency. He organized volunteers to maintain essential services and refused to negotiate with labor leaders until the strike ended. In December 1935 a British-French agreement allowed Italy to conquer Ethiopia and brought immediate public criticism of Baldwin’s government. The following year he skillfully handled the constitutional crisis that culminated in the abdication of King Edward VIII. Article History Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin ▼ Primary Sources ▼ Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, the son of the industrialist, Alfred Baldwin, was born in Bewdley on 3rd August 1867. After being educated at Harrow and Trinity College , Cambridge , he joined the family iron and steel business. In the 1906 General Election , Baldwin was elected as Conservative MP for Bewdley . In December 1916, Baldwin became Private Parliamentary Secretary to Andrew Bonar Law , the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the government led by David Lloyd George , Baldwin served as Junior Lord of the Treasury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and President of the Board of Trade.

In October 1922 Baldwin organised the plot that ousted David Lloyd George as Prime Minister of the coalition government. The new Prime Minister, Andrew Bonar Law , appointed Stanley Baldwin Chancellor of the Exchequer in October 1922. When ill-health forced Bonar Law to resign in May 1923 Baldwin became the new Prime Minister. In 1925 Baldwin had to deal with the crisis in the coal industry. When the mine-owners announced that they intended to reduce the miner's wages. The General Council of the Trade Union Congress responded to this news by promising to support the miners in their dispute with their employers. Baldwin decided to intervene, and his government supplied the necessary money to bring the miners' wages back to their previous level. However, Baldwin stated that this subsidy to the miners' wages would only last 9 months. In the meantime he set up a Royal Commission under the chairmanship of Sir Herbert Samuel , to look into the problems of the Mining Industry. The Samuel Commission published its report in March 1926. Samuel recommended that the Government subsidy should be withdrawn and the miners' wages should be reduced. The Trade Union Congress called a General Strike but continued to negotiate with the government.

The main figure involved in these negotiations was Jimmy Thomas . Talks went on until late on Sunday night, and according to Thomas, they were close to agreement when Baldwin broke off negotiations. The reason for his action was that printers at the Daily Mail had refused to print a leading article attacking the proposed General Strike. On 3rd May the Trade Union Congress called out workers in the key industries - railwaymen, transport workers, dockers, printers, builders, iron and steel workers - a total of 3 million men (a fifth of the adult male population). Baldwin arranged for Sir Herbert Samuel to meet the leaders of the Trade Union Congress . Without telling the miners, the TUC negotiating committee met Samuel and worked out a set of proposals to end the General Strike. These included: (1) a National Wages Board with an independent chairman; (2) a minimum wage for all colliery workers; (3) workers displaced by pit closures to be given alternative employment; (4) the wages subsidy to be renewed while negotiations continued. However, Samuel warned that subsequent negotiations would probably mean a reduction in wages. These terms were accepted by the TUC negotiating committee, but were rejected by the executive of the Miners' Federation .

On the 11th May, at a meeting of the Trade Union Congress General Committee, it was decided to accept the terms proposed by Herbert Samuel and to call off the General Strike. On 21st June 1926, Baldwin's Government introduced a Bill into the House of Commons that suspended the miners' Seven Hours Act for five years - thus permitting a return to an 8 hour day for miners. In July the mine-owners announced new terms of employment for miners based on the 8 hour day. In 1927 Baldwin's Government passed the Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act . This act made all sympathetic strikes illegal, ensured the trade union members had to voluntarily 'contract in' to pay the political levy, forbade Civil Service unions to affiliate to the TUC , and made mass picketing illegal. Baldwin lost the 1929 General Election . The election of the Labour Government coincided with an economic depression and Ramsay MacDonald was faced with the problem of growing unemployment. MacDonald asked Sir George May , to form a committee to look into Britain's economic problem.

When the May Committee produced its report in July, 1931, it suggested that the government should reduce its expenditure by £97,000,000, including a £67,000,000 cut in unemployment benefits. MacDonald, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden , accepted the report but when the matter was discussed by the Cabinet, the majority voted against the measures suggested by Sir George May. Ramsay MacDonald was angry that his Cabinet had voted against him and decided to resign. When he saw George V that night, he was persuaded to head a new coalition government that would include Conservative and Liberal leaders as well as Labour ministers. Most of the Labour Cabinet totally rejected the idea and only three, Philip Snowden , Jimmy Thomas and John Sankey agreed to join the new government. MacDonald was determined to continue and his National Government introduced the measures that had been rejected by the previous Labour Cabinet. Labour MPs were furious with what had happened and MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party . Stanley Baldwin was invited to join the National Government formed by Ramsay MacDonald in August 1931 and served as President of the Council.

The 1931 General Election was a disaster for the Labour Party with only 46 members winning their seats. MacDonald, now had 556 pro-National Government MPs and had no difficulty pursuing the policies suggested by Sir George May. However, disowned by his own party, he was now a prisoner of the Conservative Party , and in June 1935 he was gently eased from power. Baldwin now became Prime Minister. Baldwin was criticised for his policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War and his reluctance to rearm against the growing threat from Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany . It has also been claimed that his policies were also partly responsible for prolonging the economic depression in the 1930s. In 1936 the Conservative government feared the spread of communism from the Soviet Union to the rest of Europe. Baldwin shared this concern and was fairly sympathetic to the military uprising in Spain against the left-wing Popular Front government. Leon Blum , the prime minister of the Popular Front government in France , initially agreed to send aircraft and artillery to help the Republican Army in Spain.

However, after coming under pressure from Baldwin and Anthony Eden in Britain, and more right-wing members of his own cabinet, he changed his mind. Baldwin and Blum now called for all countries in Europe not to intervene in the Spanish Civil War . A Non-Intervention Agreement was drawn-up and was eventually signed by 27 countries including the Soviet Union , Germany and Italy . However, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini openly ignored the agreement and sent a large amount of military aid, including troops, to General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist forces. The Labour Party originally supported the government's non-intervention policy. However, when it became clear that Hitler and Mussolini were determined to help the Nationalists win the war, Labour leaders began to call for Britain to supply the Popular Front with military aid. Some members of the party joined the International Brigades and fought for the Republicans in Spain. Of the 2,000 British citizens who served with the Republican Army , the majority were members of the Communist Party . Although some notable literary figures volunteered ( W. H.

Auden , George Orwell , John Cornford , Stephen Spender , Christopher Caudwell ), most of the men who went to Spain were from the working-class, including a large number of unemployed miners. To stop volunteers fighting for the Republicans, the British government announced on 9th January, 1937, that it intended to invoke the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870 . It also passed the Merchant Shipping (Carriage of Munitions to Spain) Act. Praised for his handling of the abdication crisis in 1936 Baldwin resigned from office following the successful coronation celebrations of George VI in May 1937. After retiring from the House of Commons he was granted the title Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. Stanley Baldwin died on 14th December 1947. Stanley Baldwin, Prime minister • Biography & Facts Stanley Baldwin Prime minister Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG PC FRS (3 August 1867 – 14 December 1947) was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars.

Three times Prime Minister, he is the only premier to have served under three monarchs (George V, Edward VIII and George VI).Baldwin first entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the Member of Parliament for Bewdley, and held government office in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George. In 1922, Baldwin was one of the prime movers in the withdrawal of Conservative support from Lloyd George; he subsequently became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Bonar Law 's Conservative ministry. Upon Law's resignation due to health reasons in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader. He called an election on the issue of tariffs and lost the Conservatives' majority, after which Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour government.After winning the 1924 General Election Baldwin formed his second government, which saw important tenures of office by Sir Austen Chamberlain (Foreign Secretary), Winston Churchill (at the Exchequer) and Neville Chamberlain (Health). That government also saw the General Strike in 1926 and the 1927 Trades Disputes Act to curb the powers of trade unions, although Baldwin was supportive of Labour politicians at Westminster forming minority governments.

Baldwin lost the 1929 General Election and his continued leadership was subject to criticism by the press barons Rothermere and Beaverbrook.In 1931, Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government, most of whose ministers were Conservatives and which won an enormous majority at the 1931 General Election. As Lord President of the Council, Baldwin took over many of the Prime Minister's duties due to MacDonald's failing health. This government saw an Act delivering increased self-government for India, a measure opposed by Churchill and by many rank-and-file Conservatives. As party leader Baldwin made many striking innovations, such as clever use of radio and film that made him highly visible to the public and strengthened Conservative appeal.In 1935, Baldwin replaced MacDonald as Prime Minister of the National Government, and won the 1935 General Election with another large majority. During this time, he oversaw the re-armament process of the British military as well as the abdication of King Edward VIII .

Baldwin's third government saw a number of crises in foreign affairs, including the public uproar over the Hoare-Laval Pact, Hitler's reoccupation of the Rhineland and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.Baldwin retired in 1937 and was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain . At that time he was regarded as a popular and successful prime minister, but for the final decade of his life, and for many years afterwards, he was vilified for having presided over high unemployment in the 1930s and as one of the "Guilty Men" who had tried to appease Adolf Hitler and who had – supposedly – not rearmed sufficiently to prepare for the Second World War. By 2004, however, historians generally painted a positive portrait of his governments. Ball says, Baldwin is now seen as having done more than most and perhaps as much as was possible in the context, but the fact remains that it was not enough to deter the aggressors or ensure their defeat. Less equivocal was his rediscovery as a moderate and inclusive Conservative for the modern age, part of a 'one nation tradition'.

Personal facts BBC NEWS | UK | Profile: Stanley Baldwin Wednesday, 29 January, 2003, 17:56 GMT Profile: Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin was the son of an MP As the Public Record Office releases more documents concerning the abdication of King Edward VIII, BBC News Online looks at the career of Stanley Baldwin - the prime minister who played a vital role in the crisis. The abdication crisis was one of the key moments of Stanley Baldwin's political career. It fell to the then Conservative prime minister to refuse King Edward VIII permission to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson - and to outline the situation to the Commons. The speech he made to MPs has been described as one of the greatest of the age. It prompted Harold Nicholson MP to report in his diary: "We file out broken in body and soul, conscious that we have heard the best speech we will ever hear in our lives. "No man has dominated the House as he dominated it today and he knows it." Our people...

will not stand for this sort of thing in a public personage Stanley Baldwin to King Edward VIII Stanley Baldwin - who was to become prime minister three times in the 1920s and 1930s - was born in 1867, the only child of a Worcestershire ironworks owner and local MP. The family was Methodist, and Baldwin himself was deeply religious. After attending Harrow School and Cambridge University, Baldwin joined the family firm in 1888. He entered Parliament in 1908. By 1923 he was prime minister. He was asked to form a government when Andrew Bonar Law resigned due to illness. Cunning His first stint leading the country was brief. He lost the December 1923 general election and Labour took over. But by November 1924 he was back in Number 10. Baldwin confronted Edward over his relationship with Wallis Simpson Baldwin's approach to government was to give his ministers the freedom to act while he maintained a general overview. Some saw this as laziness and pointed to Baldwin's insistence on taking long holidays, even if matters of state were pressing.

Others saw it as cunning and the only way he could maintain control over a party with significant internal divisions. Baldwin lost the general election of 1929, and Labour came back into power. Crisis role He came close to quitting politics in 1930 and spent much of the next two years fighting elements of his own party. But in 1931 he returned to government as a member of Ramsay MacDonald's National Coalition and in June 1935 he became prime minister again when MacDonald resigned. No prime minister has ever chosen a better moment to bow out Robert Blake, historian This term in office was dominated by affairs in Europe and by the abdication crisis. The latter saw Baldwin at his peak, the former was to dash his reputation after he had left office. When King Edward VIII came to the throne in January 1936, Baldwin did not approve wholeheartedly of the new monarch for reasons as diverse as his taste for light-coloured suits and what was believed to be his sympathy for certain aspects of Nazi Germany. When the King told Baldwin he wanted to marry Mrs Simpson, the prime minister told the monarch it would be unacceptable. "I think I know our people," he told them.

"They will tolerate a lot in private life, but they will not stand for this sort of thing in a public personage." Baldwin was blamed for not standing up to Mussolini In a series of meetings he spelled out Edward's options to him, which eventually boiled down to renouncing Mrs Simpson or abdicating - the King chose the latter. It was generally agreed Baldwin had handled the situation well. He retired a few months later, shortly after the Coronation of George VI in May 1937, and in the words of historian Robert Blake "no prime minister has ever chosen a better moment to bow out". But his reputation did not last long as he took some of the blame for not standing up to Hitler and Mussolini early enough. When World War II began in September 1939, Baldwin was blamed for having left Britain with insufficient defences. Key stories Stanley Baldwin - Wikiquote Stanley Baldwin Jump to: navigation , search The greatest crime to our own people is to be afraid to tell the truth … the old frontiers are gone. Quotes[ edit ] True to our traditions, we have avoided all extremes.

We have steered clear of fascism, communism, dictatorship, and we have shown the world that democratic government, constitutional methods and ordered liberty are not inconsistent with progress and prosperity. A lot of hard-faced men who look as if they had done very well out of the war. Of the new MPs elected in 1918; quoted by John Maynard Keynes in Economic Consequences of the Peace, Ch. 5 I am just one of yourselves, who has been called to special work for the country at this time. I never sought the office. I never planned out or schemed my life. I have but one idea, which was an idea that I inherited, and it was the idea of service — service to the people of this country. My father lived in the belief all his life … It is a tradition; it is in our bones; and we have to do it. That service seemed to lead one by way of business and the county council into Parliament, and it has led one through various strange paths to where one is; but the ideal remains the same, because all my life I believed from my heart the words of Browning , "All service ranks the same with God".

It makes very little difference whether a man is driving a tramcar or sweeping streets or being Prime Minister, if he only brings to that service everything that is in him and performs it for the sake of mankind. Speech in Worcester (7 November 1923); published in On England, and Other Addresses (1938), p. 19 To me, England is the country, and the country is England. And when I ask myself what I mean by England when I am abroad, England comes to me through my various senses — through the ear, through the eye and through certain imperishable scents … The sounds of England, the tinkle of the hammer on the anvil in the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewy morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone, and the sight of a plough team coming over the brow of a hill, the sight that has been seen in England since England was a land … the one eternal sight of England. Speech on England (May 1924); published in On England, and Other Addresses (1938), pp. 6-7. I am a man of peace.

I am longing and working and praying for peace, but I will not surrender the safety and security of the British constitution. You placed me in power eighteen months ago by the largest majority accorded to any party for many, many years. Have I done anything to forfeit that confidence? Cannot you trust me to ensure a square deal to secure even justice between man and man? Speech on BBC radio on the General Strike (8 May 1926), as quoted in Baldwin : A Biography by Keith Middlemas and John Barnes (1969), p. 415 England totally disarmed and an easy prey to hostile forces! Can you think of anything more likely to excite cupidity and hostile intention? We should sink to the level of a fifth rate Power, our Colonies would be stripped from us, our commerce would decline, famine and unemployment would stalk the land. … I share your longing for peace. God forbid that it should be again disturbed! The constant and undivided effort of the Government is for its preservation. But I have yet to learn that the cause of peace can be served by rendering our country impotent.

Letter to Arthur Ponsonby (16 December 1927); published in Semi-detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945 (2000) by Martin Ceadel, p. 271 If I did not believe that our work was done in the faith and hope that at some day, it may be a million years hence, the Kingdom of God will spread over the whole world, I would have no hope, I could do no work, and I would give my office over this morning to anyone who would take it. Speech to the British and Foreign Bible Society (2 May 1928); published in This Torch of Freedom (1935), pp. 92 - 93 Tom Mosley is a cad and a wrong 'un and they will find it out. On Oswald Mosley (21 June 1929). "They" were the Labour Party which had recently won a general election. Quoted in Whitehall Diary : Volume II (1969) by Thomas Jones, p. 195.

What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot through the ages. Baldwin was attacking the leading press barons of his day (Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere); the phrase was suggested by Baldwin's cousin Rudyard Kipling (17 March 1931) I think it well … for the man in the street to realise that there is no power on earth that can protect him from being bombed. Whatever people may tell him, the bomber will always get through. The only defence is offence, which means that you will have to kill women and children more quickly than the enemy if you want to save yourselves. Statement of (10 November 1932), as quoted in Baldwin : A Biography by Keith Middlemas and John Barnes (1969), p. 735 It is no ready made article; it has grown through the centuries as native to our country and people as the oak, ash, or thorn. It has given her people freedom and taught them the difference between freedom and licence.

That is the Constitution that is threatened to-day, not quite openly yet, by the Socialist Party in their conference, tendenciously by sketching a course of action which if it takes place means the destruction of the Constitution. You may dispute that as much as you like, but in effect taking away the executive power of the House of Commons is the way every tyranny starts. It is proletarian Hitlerism and nothing else, and it can be nothing else. I want you to realize it in time. Speech in Birmingham (6 October, 1933). 'Mr. Baldwin On Disarmament', The Times (7 October, 1933), p. 14. This country to-day [is] the last stronghold of freedom, standing like a rock in a tide that is threatened to submerge the world. Broadcast speech (6 March 1934); published in This Torch of Freedom (1935), p. 23 The greatest crime to our own people is to be afraid to tell the truth … the old frontiers are gone. When you think of the defence of England you no longer think of the chalk cliffs of Dover; you think of the Rhine. That is where it lies.

Speech in the House of Commons (30 July 1934), as quoted in Baldwin : A Biography by Keith Middlemas and John Barnes (1969), p. 775 It is not the case that Germany is rapidly approaching equality with us. Her real strength is not fifty per cent. of our strength in Europe to-day. Responding to claims from Winston Churchill on the size of Germany's air force in a House of Commons debate (28 November 1934); published in Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 295, col. 882. There is no country … where there are not somewhere lovers of freedom who look to this country to carry the torch and keep it burning bright until such time as they may again be able to light their extinguished torches at our flame. We owe it not only to our own people but to the world to preserve our soul for that. Speech at University of Durham to the Ashridge Fellowship, as quoted in The Times (3 December 1934); also in Christian Conservatives and the Totalitarian Challenge, 1933-40 by Philip Williamson, in The English Historical Review, Vol.

115, No. 462 (June 2000) I should like to make an observation to right honourable and honourable Gentlemen opposite. It is that I do not think they will help to produce the atmosphere in Europe which is so desirable by issuing papers that have been issued by the National Council of Labour, headed 'Hit Hitler'. Speech in the House of Commons (11 March 1935); published in Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 299 cols. 50-1. "Magna Carta is the Law: Let the King look out." So it has always been with tyrants among our own people: when the King was tyrant, let him look out. And it has always been the same, and will be the same, whether the tyrant be the Barons, whether the tyrant be the Church, whether he be demagogue or dictator — let them look out. Speech at Westminster Hall (4 July 1935); published in This Torch of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses (1935), p.

4 Whatever failures may have come to parliamentary government in countries which have not those traditions, and where it is not a natural growth, that is no proof that parliamentary government has failed. Speech at Westminster Hall (4 July 1935); published in This Torch of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses (1935), p. 5 The die-hard opinions of George III couched in the language of Edmund Burke . On Winston Churchill 's speech against the Government of India Bill (1935) - (Audio file at BBC) The lessons of this crisis have made it clear to us that in the interests of world peace it is essential that our defensive services should be stronger than they are to-day. When I say that I am not thinking of any kind of unilateral rearmament directed either in reality or in imagination against any particular country, as might have been said to be the case before the War.

It is a strengthening of our defensive services within the framework of the League, for the sake of international peace, not for selfish ends...I will not be responsible for the conduct of any Government in this country at this present time, if I am not given power to remedy the deficiencies which have accrued in our defensive services since the War...One of the weaknesses of a democracy, a system of which I am trying to make the best, is that until it is right up against it it will never face the truth. Speech in the House of Commons (23 October 1935). Do not fear or misunderstand when the Government say they are looking to our defences. I give you my word that there will be no great armaments. Letter to the Peace Society (31 October 1935), during the general election. True to our traditions, we have avoided all extremes. We have steered clear of fascism, communism, dictatorship, and we have shown the world that democratic government, constitutional methods and ordered liberty are not inconsistent with progress and prosperity.

Newsreel appearance after the general election (November 1935) Variant: We, true to our traditions, avoided all extremes, have steered clear of fascism, communism, dictatorship, and have shown the world that democratic government, constitutional methods and ordered liberty are not inconsistent with progress and prosperity. As quoted in Cinema, Literature & Society : Elite and Mass Culture in Interwar Britain (1987) by Peter Miles and Malcolm Smith, p. 22 The 1922 Club gave me a dinner in the House the other night and I think I had a great success...I had just a note or two to keep me right. I said there were some who doubted whether I was a dyed-in-the-wool Tory. I told them I wore Tory colours in my pram in the 1868 election. My father voted Whig then, but our cook was a Tory and she saw to my politics. For 94 years a Tory had represented Bewdley.

I told them of my fight at Kidderminster, how I had come back from a visit to the United States a protectionist, how we were stirred by Joseph Chamberlain's tariff campaign, how we blundered badly over the Taff Vale decision. How when the war ended we were in a new world and how class conscious and revolutionary it was; how I felt that our Party was being destroyed and how I determined to do what I could to rescue it. I did not mention L[loyd] G[eorge] or Winston [Churchill]. Then in 1931 we conformed to the King's wish and all my colleagues agreed with me in doing so. I then touched on German rearmament and claimed that we could not have got this country to rearm one moment earlier than we did. Conversation with Thomas Jones (22 May 1936), quoted in Thomas Jones, A Diary with Letters. 1931-1950 (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 204. I cannot rival L[loyd] G[eorge] at that sort of speech—full of clever thrusts, innuendos, malicious half-truths.

To L[loyd] G[eorge] and Winston [Churchill] it is all part of a game; as for me, I cannot make speeches which are sheer and mere dialectic...If I had made the sort of speech about L[loyd] G[eorge] that I could have made it would be a cruel attack on an old man and it would have done no good. All through his career, except during the War, he has done no end of harm, and his Versailles peace was iniquitous and his conduct after the peace execrable. Conversation with Thomas Jones (7 July 1936), quoted in Thomas Jones, A Diary with Letters. 1931-1950 (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 227. We none of us know what is going on in that strange man's mind. We all know the German desire as he has come out with in his book [Mein Kampf] to move East, and if he moves East, I shall not break my heart, but that is another thing.

I do not believe he wants to move West, because West would be a very difficult programme for him … If there is any fighting in Europe to be done, I should like to see the Bolsheviks and Nazis doing it. Baldwin to the deputation at the end of July, 1936, as quoted in Baldwin : A Biography by Keith Middlemas and John Barnes (1969), p. 947, p. 955. Supposing I had gone to the country [in 1933], and said that Germany was re-arming, and that we must re-arm, does anybody think that this pacific democracy would have rallied to that cry at that moment? I cannot think of anything that would have made the loss of the election from my point of view more certain...we got from the country [in 1935], with a large majority, a mandate for doing a thing no one, twelve months earlier, would have believed possible.

Baldwin answering Winston Churchill in the House of Commons (12 November 1936), as quoted in Churchill: A Study in Failure 1900-1939 (1970) by Robert Rhodes James, p. 268 In none of these countries [Russia, Italy and Germany] was it possible to make to the people such an appeal as went home to the heart of our people, an appeal based on Christianity or ethics … The whole outlook in the dictator countries was so completely different from ours that for a long time people here could not understand how it was possible for these nations not to respond to the same kind of appeal as that to which our people responded. But they were beginning to realise it now...The only argument which appealed to the dictators was that of force. Baldwin to the Cabinet in 1937 during his last days as Premier, as quoted in The Collapse of British Power (1972) by Correlli Barnett, p.

449 The real need of the day is … moral and spiritual rearmament … God's Living Spirit can transcend conflicting political systems, can reconcile order and freedom, can rekindle true patriotism, can unite all citizens in the service of the nation, and all nations in the service of mankind. Baldwin's response to the Munich crisis , as quoted in The Times (10 September 1938) I knew that I had been chosen as God's instrument for the work of the healing of the nation. Letter from 1938, as quoted in My Father : The True Story (1955) by A. W. Baldwin, pp. 327 - 328 Civilisation may perish as the result of war: it would certainly perish as the result of Nazi-ism triumphant beyond the borders of the country of its birth...And now we know that should the challenge come, we shall be there.

In Luther's words “we can no other.” We were there when the Spanish galleons made for Plymouth: we were on those bloody fields in the Netherlands when Louis XIV aimed at the domination of Europe: we were on duty when Napoleon bestrode the world like a demi-god, and we answered the roll call, as you did, in August, 1914. We can no other. So help us, God. Speech to the University of Toronto (April 1939), quoted in An Interpreter of England. The Falconer Lectures (1939), pp. 117-118. The critics have no historical sense. I have no Cabinet papers by me and do not want to trust my memory. But recall the Fulham election, the Peace Ballot, Singapore, sanctions, Malta. The English will only learn by example. When I first heard of Hitler, when Ribbentrop came to see me, I thought they were all crazy. I think I brought Ramsay and Simon to meet Ribbentrop. Remember that Ramsay's health was breaking up in the last two years. He had lost his nerve in the House in the last year.

I had to take all the important speeches. The moment he went I prepared for a General Election and got a bigger majority for re-armament. No power on earth could have got re-armament without a General Election except by a big split. Simon was inefficient. I had to lead the House and keep the machine together with those Labour fellows. Conversation with Thomas Jones (21/22 January 1941), quoted in Thomas Jones, A Diary with Letters. 1931-1950 (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 482. My tongue, not my pen, is my instrument. Conversation with Thomas Jones (7 January 1946), quoted in Thomas Jones, A Diary with Letters. 1931-1950 (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 540. Quotes about Baldwin[ edit ] People of all parties came to see him, particularly the Labour men, many of whom he liked. I am sure no one can know Baldwin without liking him, even getting fond of him. J. W. Robertson Scott, writing about Stanley Baldwin in 1938.

In a world of voluble hates, he plotted to make men like, or at least tolerate, one another. Therein he had much success, within the shores of this island. He remains the most human and lovable of all the Prime Ministers. G. M. Trevelyan No British Prime Minister of the last seventy years has been more harshly stereotyped than Stanley Baldwin. No one has been so much ignored, after the initial judgements of contemporaries had been made. Keith Middlemas

Question: How many times was Stanley Baldwin the 'British Prime Minister'?
Answer: 3